Tips on How to Maintain a Successful Marriage

Marriage is a union built on love, mutual respect, commitment, and teamwork. Its success isn’t based on how top-of-the-range your wedding dress is, or the destination you pick for your honeymoon. It takes hard work, resilience, and a mutual sense of obligation to make it work.

If you’re about to start this lifelong journey with your spouse, and you need to understand the basics of a healthy marriage, this article offers you exclusive tips on how to maintain a successful marriage.

How to Make Your Marriage Successful

When the excitement about your lavish wedding ceremony and luxurious wedding dress dies down, and the reality of what marriage really means hits you, you’ll need these guidelines to keep your marriage going in the right direction.

No Marriage is Flawless

The first mistake that most newlyweds make is to put their marriage on a pedestal, assuming that theirs is flawless or too special. This mindset will set you up for disappointment, especially when the usual marriage shortcomings begin to manifest.

Assuming your marriage is flawless means treating your spouse as more than human, which puts them in a tight spot because they have to work extra hard or camouflage their real character to maintain the perfect façade.

It’s okay to want to make your marriage an enviable model for others, but believing that it should be flawless is being naïve. Don’t get caught up in the desire to please others so much that you deny your marriage the freedom to go through the natural course of its development.

Get into marriage expecting to experience major twists and turns. It’s how you handle these shortcomings that determines how happy and successful your marriage becomes.

Marriage is a Shared Commitment

The desire and determination to work on your marriage and make it successful is a shared responsibility. Sitting back and expecting your spouse to bear all the burden is the quickest route to failure.

Unfortunately, most married couples don’t see their marriages as reciprocal partnerships. They only care about what the other partner should do for them. Although your spouse may tolerate your uncaring attitude for a while, they’ll soon realize that they’re the only ones trying to make it work.

Don’t let your marriage get to a point where your partner feels like they’re going it alone, because it becomes very difficult to rework everything. Couples should work out a formula for sharing responsibilities before getting married. This way, everyone will be aware of what is expected of them in the relationship.

It becomes easier to call your spouse to order when they fall short of your expectations. Furthermore, everything in the relationship becomes clear when you have a blueprint of what you expect and where you want it to go.

Apologize Freely When You’re Wrong

It’s healthy to have misunderstandings in a relationship because they’ll bring you together to discuss each other’s shortcomings and find lasting solutions. A partner who agrees with everything is hiding something from you. It’s only someone who has genuine feelings and intentions for you will openly disagree with you and point out your flaws.

When this happens, don’t be defensive or try to gaslight your partner. It’s only a sadist and self-centered partner who won’t accept they’re wrong and apologize. This leads to unhealthy arguments, resentment, and a desire for revenge. Tit-for-tat is a dangerous game that has ruined many promising marriages.

Even when you apologize to your spouse, do it sincerely without coercion. Let them know that you’re apologizing because you realize you are wrong and you care about their feelings. It challenges them to do the same when they wrong you.

Keep the Communication Open

The media wants you to believe that lots of sex is what will hold your marriage together, but it’s just one of the key ingredients. In fact, sex and intimacy become more enjoyable when the communication aspect of the relationship is taken care of.

A successful marriage thrives on free and open communication, where spouses can talk about anything without the fear of being judged or victimized. Create an environment that encourages your spouse to open up and be vulnerable to you.

They should be able to talk about their feelings, expectations, and needs. A lot of resentment and frustrations in marriage come from unfulfilled and uncommunicated needs. Everything works better when you know what’s on the mind of your spouse.

Implement these tips in your marriage and watch it flourish. Remember, marriage works when there’s open communication, forgiveness, mutual commitment, and an understanding that no marriage is perfect.